MRSVERGIEM

It has been two years since we celebrated our special day with our family and friends. Our day of union. A day full of love, tears and laughter. Our wedding day. I have posted this in my previous blog, but I wanted to share this again in my current mommy blog =)

Weddings are a magical thing. It is one of the happiest moments for the bride and groom to share with their loved ones, and let’s all admit it that we girls, have that dream wedding in mind even before the proposal happens. Yep! I have that as well, been planning my dream wedding in my head even before we had “The Talk.”

We were in an event one evening. We talked about the details we see, the decors and the food of the night, when…

“Ikaw na bahala sa wedding natin ah,” Jay said. I looked at him, brows furrowed as if he told me something in an alien language. He noticed my confusion, but he looked without a word to follow and then smiled shyly. That was when I realized that he just proposed. I looked down as i drummed on the table nervously. Not the proposal I had in mind, but I’ll take it.

“G! Kung yung VMI (a complicated major project I handle) nga nadeploy, wedding pa kaya” I joked. But can I really? I thought.

That was a short story of our proposal – for the next blog? let me know =)

We had limited resources when we started – 0 savings (not a good Idea, wag po tularan), so I whipped out my excel expertise and created a system for us to track our budget, To-dos, and other things we may need to make our event according to what we wanted. Thankfully we were surrounded by incredibly talented family members who helped us from small to significant details of our dream wedding.

I love to watch do-it-yourself videos and apply it to my daily life that often helped me save money, and sometimes I created a much better outcome than what you buy in stores. So I knew that my wedding would be a DIY one, and I could feel it in my heart that I would have a lot of fun.

I am also a harry potter fan (Potter heads! hello!), and I wanted to incorporate subtle details related to it. Not too out-there-in-your-face-decors, but something that a potter head like me would get once laid eyes on. A little hint here and there for our guests to guess.

So, let me take you on a three (3) part journey of Our Do-It-Yourself Wedding.

The Invitation

The item that you send out to your guest to announce that you guys are getting married and the details that comes with it.

The idea of our invitation was from Marauder’s Map – an HP item. I saw this while I was scrolling through pinterest. I searched for a printable template but the only one available was for sale and it costed more than our budget. Luckily, Jay – my husband – is an expert with photo editing, Photoshop and all those stuffs. I told him my idea, showed him a few pictures to copy and he started to work on it… from scratch. Took him a few months to finish, it tested his patience as he was using a tool that he was not familiar with, and some he had to draw to get the result that I wanted. Hands down to him, he made it possible. It was beautiful.

We printed a few copies (20) to give out to church, to our photo and video team and to a handful of our guests.

The papers (I forgot what they were called) were bought in National Bookstore. We still have the invitation template and I would love to share it to those who want it. comment down below =)

Bouquets

This bouquet was not the most environment friendly, but I saw a DIY video where she created a flower out of the pages of a book, and I wanted to do that as well. I did not have the heart to tear a book page and use it, so instead, I printed onto scratch papers a few chapters from my favorite book. I had the pdf version, which made it more accessible.

I followed instructions from a youtube video (link here) for the paper flower. I applied the same concept for the ribbon flower – I think she also created a video tutorial, which I followed for the ribbon version. I printed a total of more or less 50 sheets, twirled, and produced around 300 or more of little paper flowers.

I assembled them in a 3 inches styro ball that I bought in the national bookstore. The handle was from a kitchen paper roll that I wrapped with a maroon ribbon. I also decided so surround it with a white stripe, and white pearls were glued at the bottom to give it an extra character. We bought the ribbons from Divisoria – one of our go-to places to buy decors and DIY stuff.

I was happy with the outcome. All the painful burns from the glue gun, unlimited twirling, and cutting of papers and ribbons were all worth-it for my entourage’s bouquets.

Then it came to my bouquet. I had a few disagreements from my mother about this. We calmly argued because she wanted me to carry a real flower as I walk down the aisle. My sister even suggested that I create my own out of real flowers if I wanted it to have a personal touch. I contemplated and thought about their suggestions, considered buying real flowers from Dangwa (a flower market in Manila) for my bouquet, and even searched for a supplier that could make me one.

I had the materials ready, and even though they disapproved, I went with what my heart desired. I picked Hermoine’s wand as the handle, glued the paper and ribbon flowers onto a 4 inches styro, surrounded the handles with crystal beads, and on the event itself, I wrapped a maroon rosary on my hand as I held onto my bouquet. On top of it was a golden snitch, which I got from a mystery harry potter box I ordered even before I plan my wedding. I also placed random crystals – which my mom removed from dresses she no longer use – onto the ribbon flowers, making the bouquet glitter when the light gazed upon it.

It was everything I wanted for my bouquet. I even got compliments from the bridal car driver, a potter-head like me, and a few guests who noticed it.

Groom’s Boutonniere

I ordered boutonnieres online for the entourage, but I wanted to make Jay’s a little different. I had to reconstruct, disassemble the maroon flowers and re-arrange them into place to make space for the other paper flower to make him stand out from the others.

The Keys to Your Seat

I admit that this invention was not the most efficient, and if I could do it again, I would place it on a massive board with fairy lights on the border. They set the board in a dark corner of the event place, making it hard for the guest to see and pick their keys. It was a good idea, though, to find the key to their seat, like how Harry in the first book searched for the key to the next door that they wanted to go through. In that movie, the vintage keys had wings, and after they found the right one, the other keys attacked them.
I wanted them to take their key to find their seat and treat the vintage key as a souvenir as well, but not everyone got to it, which was OK. I used a cork board bought from the bookstore, pasted the guest’s printed names in alphabetical order, and placed the vintage keys beside their names using a white clothespin I purchased online.
You can find vintage keys online. I can no longer see the store where I bought this. During that time, I had a hard time finding one, but now, they are everywhere.

Aaaannnd that is it for the first part of this long post. My wedding was the first biggest DIY project I ever did, and I can say I am proud of myself for pulling this off.

Stay tuned for part 2, where I talk about Giveaways, Guest table decors, Photobooth, Guest book, and the welcome wands that I created myself.

Good luck with your wedding and your DIY project. Always remember that your feelings are valid, and with prayers, you can overcome any obstacles that come with handling big projects such as this.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!